Official ‘Skyrim’ strategy guide is massive, interactive

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never been a fan of video game strategy guides with the exception of accompanying certain Final Fantasy titles. They remove the element of discovery, and the urge to peek ahead at multiple spoilers is difficult to resist. That said, the Official Game Guide for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has changed my mind about strategy books, thanks to the man behind it (David Hodgson) and its ridiculous 656 page length.

Hodgson, who also authored the Fallout 3 guide, jokes that Bethesda said the Skyrim guide should be “five times the size.” On the Bethesda blog, he tosses out some numbers that are worthy of paying attention to. Numbers like 2,000 man-hours of work, 656 pages, 550,000 words, 150 maps, and over 1000 screenshots. The first 70 pages alone are dedicated to training, with detailed coverage of the races, archetypes, crafting, mapping, dungeons, combat, a bestiary… the list goes on and on. Packed within these first 70 pages is also tactical advice on using each of Skyrim’s 240+ perks.

It gets more tantalizing: The guide ships with an interactive online version with a malleable world map, and a map app for your iPad.

Jason is VGW’s founder, publisher, and longtime podcaster, writer, and “solopreneur” who is driven by the classic Jello Biafra quote “Don’t hate the media. Become the media.” You can hear him ranting alongside the VGW Collective in the site’s official podcast, “Unlimited Ammo.”

I was just wondring whats the diffrence between the diffrent guids (hard and papar) exept the fact the cover is diffrent. (and the fact that the hardbound has the interactive map code witch i was wondring if we can download on XboX live later on?)

i have skyrim on xbox. In the dark brotherhood sanctuary quest when you have to save anyone left alive, when the guards attack and set fires. The game lets me get into the nightmothers coffin, but then it freezes my xbox. Does anyone know how to get around this problem please. I can’t play on from here and i am very frustrated. Thanks.